Patrick is incorrect about SonicFire Pro and YouTube. It was SonicFire Pro music that I used that YouTube misidentified. Their version of Swan Lake was mistaken for someone else's.

I believe mentioning all the lawyers from the sponsors and the city involved may have helped in my case.

Well then I stand corrected...it should be in Sonic Fire Pro's court.
I plan on asking them myself about use of their library and YouTube off forum.

Good Luck.

In my case, SmartSound Software, the makers of SonicFire Pro, were very quick to step in and help. YouTube took a couple of days to remove the unwanted ads.

Now, people experiencing delays getting copyright issues straightened out with YouTube could partially be a case of understaffing at YouTube. It seems that understaffing is endemic in organizations when it comes to customer service/client relations issues. Just try talking to a real person on the phone. Even getting an answer to an email from a real person can be hard.

I searched and searched before I found an email address at YouTube that went to a real person. Sadly, I've lost the address. It took some searching in the Google and YouTube help forums to find out who to contact. However, if you look long enough you will find that there are some real people working at YouTube with real email addresses.

Of all the other organizations I've had to deal with, the only one that took more time and effort has been the government. Big organizations tend to inefficiency, but they all seem to have at least some hard working individuals who really want to do a good job and help people when there is a problem. Not everything has to be handled in an adversarial manner. Most problems are just screw ups, and when brought to the attention of the right individual, help comes.

Apologies for the delay in replying, I've been engaged on a 13 hour shoot today.

It is a most frustrating situation. As I have outlined, I don't like Youtube to begin with but recognise that if I like it or not they have an audience that clients want to tap into.

I have contacted the music library (Premiumbeat) and they have offered a refund and to contact the Apollo orchestra. It's important to note that Apollo licence to lots of libraries an issue with one of their tracks may impact more people than you'd think.

The short term answer may be to change the music and hope any other classic track doesn't get picked up.

As for contacting UMG, I'd love to speak to someone there. But it's been impossible so far. UMG UK don't seem to be able to help and the licensing division of UMG have so far not responded to my email (who seem to be the division responsible for copyright from what I can see).

I need some sleep and to have a think in the morning. I hate admitting defeat but when time is pressing I can't see what else to do.

But this issue needs to be flagged because next time it might be you. Remember we're talking about using reputable music sources and properly licencing your music while Youtube accuse you of theft and then stick their fingers in their ears and say "la la la, I can't hear you".

Hi Marcus.

Just like to add my commisserations as I had similar issues with YouTube last year.

Eventually it was sorted, but you may not have noticed that while YouTube place a copyright infingement notice on your video and implement whatever policy has been decided by the supposed claiment, your video is deindexed from Google's search engine.

It takes quite a few weeks to recover in their SE Index after they lift the infringement. Some where in natural justice and certainly in UK court decisions it is often that a judge will order restitution to a point prior to any loss incurred. This is often not the case when incorrect infringment notices are posted due to public domain works of differing performance and your video sinks without trace as a result.

I wish you well.

Thanks. I wasn't aware of that. The current state of play is that the Apollo Orchestra are trying to get this sorted as it impacts more than just the work I used.

But the result has been that I had to buy another track. I was offered a refund but declined as the track I wanted was the best for the job. So I elected to use another track for Youtube and the better track everywhere else.

Not satisfactory but I don't see why the entire edit should be dragged down because some record company claims to own the track I want when it is demonstrably not their property.

It's hard to impugn motives. There are companies that take actions, knowing they will eventually lose, simply to throw up road blocks.